You'd hope they'd upgrade them graphics and animations. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic called and they want their graphics back.

It's possible that the graphics will look even better once the game is released. Since it's a MMO game, there's a limit to the amount of detail they can add. As for KOTOR or KOTOR 2, it looks noticeably better.

people looking at these screens and saying it's ugly, i'm not sure what you're comparing to. side by side with games that people play only because they're pretty that i've played, those character models and skins are gorgeous and have great art direction.

as for comparing to kotor, have you played kotor recently? i mean seriously what looked great in 02 looks butt ugly compared to wow in 05.

people looking at these screens and saying it's ugly, i'm not sure what you're comparing to. side by side with games that people play only because they're pretty that i've played, those character models and skins are gorgeous and have great art direction.

as for comparing to kotor, have you played kotor recently? i mean seriously what looked great in 02 looks butt ugly compared to wow in 05.

While it looks nice, I'm pretty sure a lot of Star Wars fans haven't enjoyed the playfulness the universe has adopted in the last decade. It has ceased to be serious, epic sci-fi action and has become more comedic and one-liner heavy. This game reflects that, especially with the art style that is similar to attack of the clones. I really enjoyed games like The Force Unleashed, KOTOR and the Jedi Knight games specifically because they were very serious in the way they presented themselves. This game, as awesome as the mechanics are, really puts me off with its approach to artistic design. While the argument may be that the cartoonish look is easier to update and a more resilient art style when it comes to dated graphics in the end the visual style of the game is whatever it was made to be (outdated or not). Hell, some people even become attached to that outdated quality such as I have to the static isometric views in older RTS's as opposed to the free movement in newer ones.

All in all, I just think the artistic style of this game doesn't reflect Star Wars, or even the cinematic trailers they released for the game.

i'm pretty sure i did. i get an email from them once in a while when they make a new video and not much else. but the other updates are condensed into the email.

by new videos i mean the cgi ones or class videos. not the dev commentaries they put up on youtube every so often.

i really wouldn't worry about getting into beta at this stage. it's pretty early so it probably doesn't resemble what we'll as early as what passes as closed beta these days, ie when keys start hitting fan sites and gaming sites. more often then not people who go into these things expecting a free trial are overwhlemed by the kind off focus testing that goes on in them and end up hating the game early on.

i expect that the current beta group is pretty small and doing alot of mundane testing on certain areas, rather than having the kind of fun that any mmo launch or OB brings. but every company does things differently.

six months ago i was honestly expecting we'd be close to a spring launch by now, but realistically i can see closed betas starting in late summer for a fall launch at this point. then again they might go for a xmas launch too.